The last weekend before the 2014 New Orleans Jazz Fest gets off to a relatively low-key start. The live music options include an afternoon gospel show and, later, a blues guitarist and an avant-garde cellist.

Jo ‘Cool’ Davis, Magnolia Food Cooperative & Market, 4 p.m.

Gospel singer Jo ‘Cool’ Davis has intermingled the secular and spiritual for his entire career. For many years, he guarded the back door at Tipitina’s. But he was also one of the first artists to sing straight-up gospel music in local nightclubs. His annual “Good Friday Celebration of Community and Renewal” is something of an Easter weekend tradition. He’ll be joined at the Magnolia Market, 2132 Simon Bolivar, by pianist Cordell Chambliss and other performer.

Colin Lake Band, Maple Leaf, 10:30 p.m.

Colin Lake is an incendiary, blues-based guitarist who does much of his wailing on a lap-steel guitar.

Helen Gillet, Carrollton Station, 9:30 p.m.

Since 2003, cellist Helen Gillet has lent her idiosyncratic talents to the local music scene. Drawing on what she’s described as elements of French pop, avant-garde jazz, classical and folk styles, he has collaborated with a range of artists and fronts her own projects. She’ll showcase her own compositions on Friday at Carrollton Station.